Fossa Magna is a great rift lowland in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is often confused with Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line. However, Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line is a line; Fossa Magna is an area. Fossa Magna is Latin for "great crevasse". This name was given by

Heinrich Edmund Naumann Heinrich Edmund Naumann (September 11, 1854 – February 1, 1927) was a German geologist, regarded as the "father of Japanese geology" in Meiji period Japan. Biography Heinrich Edmund Naumann was hired by the Meiji government in 1875 as a fo ...

Fossa Magna Museum

Fossa Magna Museum is a museum that is located in

Itoigawa is a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 41,333, and a population density of 55 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Itoigawa is located in the far southwestern corner of ...

, Niigata Prefecture. It opened on April 25, 1994. It is part of Itoigawa UNESCO Global Geopark. Itoigawa is located directly above Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line and is a place where you can observe a wide variety of rocks, minerals, geological structures and so on. In addition, There is Fossa Magna Park in Itoigawa.

References

Landforms of Japan Geology of Japan {{Japan-geo-stub